Even in
the panchayats, dalit and adivasi sarpanches are routinely deposed by fraudulent
means. Often, at the end of their first year in office, they are removed by
rigged votes of 'no confidence' which then leave the upper caste upa sarpanch
in de facto powers for years. The illiterate ones are often made to put their
thumbprints on some documents - and then charged with embezzlement by the very
persons guilty of it. Dalit women members are precluded from attending crucial
panchayat meetings simply by holding these late at night in the upper caste
basti. So half of them won't date enter that basti and the ruling elite in such
a meeting can pass almost any vote. I've come across cases of sarpanches and
members being kidnapped on the eve of a crucial vote in Bundelkhand.

Now having
gone through all this, try one exercise. On the one hand, the practice of untouchability
is so widespread. ON the other look at your newspapers and TV channels. Sure,
they have stories on dalits. Usually on massacres in Bihar (in a way that creates
the impression that caste is only about massacres). But how often can you find
them using the word untouchability? The privileged educated elite has a virtual,
silent ban on that word. Though it exists everywhere, it is seldom spoken of
in those terms. How often do we hear it in public discourse? Its use is in inverse
proportion to its spread. The moment we start using that word more often, a
lot of things change. We have to start facing its implications. We have to see
the kind of society we are. We have to face how many of our privileges rest
on someone else's misery.

However,
there has been an upsurge among the dalits everywhere. And this has found reflection
in the changing national political scene during this past decade.

In this
limited time we've had, I've tried to look at: What are the challenges and hurdles
facing dalits? Why are they unable to exercise the rights that others do?

What are
the real problems as perceived by those at the receiving end? What is it to
be a dalit in India today? What are the coping mechanisms of such communities
in different parts of the country? How far do they succeed and what are the
factors that hold them back? What are the living conditions of millions of ordinary
dalits?

'We can't
even begin to go through all those aspects in detail in the time before us.
But the very nature of the problems outlined suggests certain broad direction.
Those committed to a just, equitable and democratic order can ask themselves:
what can we do to fight the situation? What can we do to help a sixth of humanity
in this country gain what might seem privileges to the ruling elites, but which
the rest of us see as legitimate human rights? What can political parties and
groups do? What can we as individuals and professionals or activists do? What
can human rights groups do? We can:

Under that
battles for dalit rights are already on. The idea is neither new nor unique
to us. Millions are already fighting in their own way. Those are largely the
dalits themselves. The question here is how non-SC/ST people - and the more
privileged class amongst the SC-STs - can relate to, support and further these
struggles.

Study, analyse,
highlight the nature of land relations and land rights in your district or region
or state. Support dalit struggles for land reform, for land rights. Try forcing
your state government to prepare a White Paper on the subject of land distribution
and reform that covers the past few decades. Outside of government, study and
understand the livelihood patterns of these sections and how they are affected
by state policy. This will become even more important in coming days. Where
land grab is identified, fight for return of those lands to dalits.

Mobilise
and fight against economic policies that further hurt these already disadvantaged
sections. You can't divorce this from their other problems. We have to fight
to see that the state does not withdraw from its obligations and duties towards
its poorest, weakest citizens. If you seriously want to fight this, you're going
to have to take a stand on the gutting or privatisation of the public sector.
And further, work towards having affirmative action in the private sector as
well. At the same time, you'd have to fight 'traditional' relationships like
bonded labour.

Don't just
act when there are major atrocities. And don't forget to follow up long after
the media has forgotten them. While the big atrocities are important, caste
oppression and the practise of untouchability on a day to day basis are no less
important. This is the process by which a human being is ground down, his or
her spirit crushed. You have to act and act radically on issues like the separate
glass system. Go out there and break those glasses if you must. But don't allow
this system to continue. I must say that it was heartening to know of what happened
in Sikar in Rajasthan. This is the only instance I have come across in the entire
north where a dalit groom was enabled to ride a horse in the face of vicious
upper caste opposition. This happened because a few political people, including
the local MLA, got together and saw to it this could be done. Whether it is
the baraat, or temple entry or the two-glass system, we must try to emulate
that example.

Fighting
on these issues is to recognise that Dignity is a very important human right.
Many urban middle class people can't understand why, for instance, a huge fight
over chairs is raging in Tamil Nadu's dalitlet panchayats. But fighting for
human dignity also implies fighting against degrading practices like the carrying
of nightsoil. This still affects lakhs of people in this country. There is a
model central law against it that many states are yet to adopt, including Rajasthan.
Fight for it - and for the livelihood of the former scavengers as well.

Lobby, fight
for and insist on a state level report on the conditions of scheduled caste
and scheduled tribe citizens being prepared every year. And this report must
be compulsorily placed in the legislature in the session closest to its release.
Not delayed for want of a so called "Action Taken Report (ATR)". The
National report has been reduced to a mockery in this fashion. So Parliament
is now debating the 1989 report when there have been three reports since! Fight
for this principle at the national levels, too. Parliament must allot two days
in its nearest session to discuss the Report of the National Commission for
SC & STs. And keep up the pressure to see that those guilty of atrocities
are brought to justice. Often the media and the human rights groups neglect
a case after it has lost its high profile. Sadly, this contributes to the guilty
getting away. So you need to monitor these and keep pushing the state to adopt
tougher measures on atrocities. One start would be : demanding full and stringent
enforcement of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities)
Act of 1989. We could start by educating ourselves about this law and its provisions.
Also fight for special measures to protect the rights of dalit women and children.
The needs of women are special because of their multiple burdens. They suffer
as poor people, often as landless agricultural labourers; they face discrimination
as women and as dalit women by caste society; and within their own households
as women.

Consider
fighting for the setting up of a state level SC/ST Commission, not just a branch
of the national one. And perhaps different bodies for SC and ST citizens. (Rajasthan
office HQ is in Gujarat!) Demand recognition of dalits as dalits regardless
of which religion they belong to. Every religion in this country is suffused
with caste.

Use the
law to form vigilance committees at the district and other levels to look into
atrocities - and also into other violations of rights. Try not to be sectarian,
try linking up the broadest possible alliance for this purpose. Reach out to
democratic elements in all formations, political parties, human rights groups,
others. Because you're going to be up against a very powerful social order if
your really choose to fight these issues. The importance of building alliances
can't be stressed too hard. Its simply a case of hanging together or being separately.
Too many protests in this area have lost their way to sectarianism, an unwillingness
to work with anyone else. And by narrowing down the issues to just a few affecting
the more privileged sections.

Make a study
of dalit-police relations in your area of work. This could be crucial. The building
of independent national data on this is essential and the results of such studies
could be explosive. This includes looking at the entire process by which, say,
a dalit seeks legal redress - or the process by which the law goes after dalits.
Try matching crimes against dalits with the conviction rates that follow. The
conviction rates are woefully low even in non-SC/ST cases. In the cases of dalits
and adivasis, they're abysmal in the extreme.

Here's one
contribution we could begin making soon: take a few "closed" cases
of the police. Ones that have had FRs filed. Then investigate and see how genuine
the decision to close the case was. The chief minister of Rajasthan has said
his government would consider such an exercise. If this were done for, say,
the Naksoda nose-cutting incident, the results would be startling. If the police
know such surveys will be conducted, there is at least some disincentive when
they think of sweeping a case under the carpet with no action.

Likewise,
have a survey in your state on the unseating of dalit and adivasi sarpanches.
I assure you, the figure will be startling. If we can build a nation-wide picture
on this, it could be most valuable in the battle for dalit rights.

Push for
restructuring Legal Aid rules. Some of these are outdated, bureaucratic and
sometimes plain stupid. Some of these have detailed forms seeking "monthly
or annual income", a query that leaves seasonal and daily wageworkers stumped.
Groups that have the capability must conduct rights awareness campaigns among
dalits, especially those who have been victims of violence or fraud.

Collect
data on reservation in the institutions around you. (Take the example of Rajasthan
University, whose practices in this regard are a crying shame and reek come
across many instances where even courts' orders are simply flouted in these
matters. Fight for the filling up of vacancies, for the enforcement of Constitutional
and other rights for dalits. This side of the battle is important, too. For
instance, dalit representation in teaching at the university level is dismal
almost anywhere across the country.

Fight for
amendments to the panchayat laws in your state, rights are as safe as the political
process they unfold in, yes. But these are ways we can reduce some of the mischief
in the panchayats. For instance, a deposed dalit sarpanch must replaced only
by another dalit. That will reduce the incentive for the ruling elite to depose
a dalit. Some states have already brought in this rule. Some states have already
brought in this rule. So why can't we fight for their adoption in all states?
There are several such amendments worth considering.

Launch a
sustained national campaign against untouchability in all its forms and at all
levels. This would have to address the problem of untouchability within the
scheduled castes as well, which in some places is extensive. You cannot say
that the rights of some within these groups are more important than the right
of others. The only way to end untouchability is to simply destroy at it every
level, in every form that it exists.

Educate
people in your locality on this. Hold meeting to put the end to untouchability
back on the agenda, back in public discourse. Try developing campaigns to force
the issue back on to media's agenda as well. (For instance, if we could put
together all the incidents of disrupted baraats in Rajasthan - that could be
far more effective in highlighting the problem than going on a case to case
basis). Groups that have the capability must generate educational material on
caste tyranny and untouchability. Try taking this to the schools where students
are often exposed to the prejudices of society through their teachers.

Fight to
bring untouchability and its eradication back into the public and national discourse.
Indian society could do with some reality therapy. There was a Chinese general
who well over 2,000 years ago said: "Know thy enemy, know yourself. A hundred
battles, a hundred victories". I would distort this to say. Know they enemy
- a hundred battles a hundred victories. Know thyself - a thousand battles,
a thousand victories.